China is counting on its domestic production of memory chips, DRAMs and 3D NAND flash memory devices in particular, to resolve its trade imbalance in semiconductors, this analysis notes. The nation is also developing logic devices, but the big push is in memory technology.

Sony described aspects of its event-driven, low-power complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor image sensor at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference. Meanwhile, Microsoft detailed the latest version of the time-of-flight sensor in the Kinect-2, among other sensor technology papers presented by Panasonic and Toshiba.

University of Maryland researchers report the development of a component that can spit out single photons and steer their direction. The microchip includes a photonic crystal created by making holes in semiconducting material.

Executives from Amazon, Facebook, Google and Nvidia presented perspectives on artificial intelligence and machine learning technology at the SysML symposium, held at Stanford University. "Deep learning is transforming how we design computers … [but] custom machine-learning hardware is in its infancy, so it will be an exciting time ahead with a lot of creativity in processor design," said Jeff Dean of the Google Brain team.

Register now for the Memory System Tutorial on March 27 in Santa Clara, Calif., taught by seasoned industry veteran Desi Rhoden of Montage Technology. Covering every DRAM generation, this tutorial will also include system and module implications for servers and other applications. Attendees will benefit from this tutorial by gaining an improved understanding of memory technology and standards, their history, current status and future trends.

Learn about a variety of market-specific memory modules in development in the industry and coordinated through JEDEC at this Tutorial on Memory Modules, Configurations & a New SPD Architecture Using MIPI I3C on March 28 in Santa Clara, Calif. It will be taught by industry experts Bill Gervasi (Nantero), Michael Joehren (NXP) and Sam Patel (IDT). See the full description and register today.

QuTech, a research group associated with Intel, reports it was able to develop a spin-based quantum computer with two quantum bits on a single microchip. Meanwhile, physicists at Princeton University say they paired photons to electron spins, an advance that may help in creating larger quantum computers.

Researchers are making progress in advancing machine learning and neuromorphic computing. "The most significant advances in machine learning in recent years have come from hardware improvements," writes Katherine Derbyshire.